Colorado Republicans mark Pride with extremist hate speech targeting "godless" LGBTQ+ community

The hateful email was followed by a social media post calling to burn all pride flags

By Nandika Chatterjee

News Fellow

Published June 4, 2024 4:04PM (EDT)

To honor and remember the victims and those injured in the Club Q tragedy a Pride flag flys at half-staff outside the Colorado state capitol for five days on November 23, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
To honor and remember the victims and those injured in the Club Q tragedy a Pride flag flys at half-staff outside the Colorado state capitol for five days on November 23, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

Pride Month in Colorado was marked by the state Republican Party blasting out a homophobic mass email that refers to LGBTQ+ people as "godless groomers” and telling followers on social media to “burn all Pride flags.”

The Colorado GOP’s campaign email went out with the subject line, “God Hates Pride." It called members of the LGBTQ+ community “barbaric,” “creeps,” “degenerates,” “predators,” “radicals,” and “reprobates,” The Advocate reported.

The outlet also noted that the email contained a link to a sermon by Pastor Mark Driscoll with the video title, "God Hates Flags,” a reference to the Westboro Baptist Church's anti-gay posters. The party’s message was signed by chairman Dave Williams, KUSA reported.

"The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children," the email stated, according to screenshots posted by Colorado journalist Kyle Clark.

The email went on to call gender-affirming care a “barbaric medical procedure” and falsely stated that the treatment is “irreversible.” The message continued on a loathsome note: "These degenerates want to violate our children and their innocence."

After Clark posted the emails to social media, the Colorado GOP took its hate to X, urging followers to "Burn all the #pride flags this June,” with an image of flames attached.

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